I would like to give a short testimony on the conference last weekend. My Dad, Rick and Linda Chapman, Chase and Laura Dorsey, and I attended Awakening the Domestic Church, a charismatic conference in Norfolk, VA, jointly organized by the New Creation Community and the Catholic Fraternity Communities in North America. The Catholic Fraternity supported the conference with attendance, prayer teams and speakers. I gave a workshop on parenting. Here’s the Zenit news story, Conferences in US Answer Call from Rome for Greater Efforts in Christian Unity, with interviews and links to more details and videos.
Father Cantalamessa was a highlight of the conference speaking at least three times. The videos of his and other talks are at www.adc2014.org. He very wisely informed us that if we wanted to hear the scheduled material that it would be emailed out and then proceeded to talk about what he discerned most appropriate including his personal testimony and the Eucharist. We will be circulating all this material around and posting it on the website so you have full visibility to all the wonderful treasures from the weekend.
One of the reasons I wanted to share a testimony about the weekend is the spirit of unity that I see developing throughout all Christianity.
I forwarded the email link where Pope Francis has started dialoging with some of the non-Catholic groups and the degree of wonderful openness across Christianity and the coming together and the building of relationships. This same dynamic was evident this week of meetings and conference. My dad attended several meetings and heard amazing testimonies and if I let him up here to share, we would be here another thirty minutes. So we’ll find the appropriate time to have him give that witness. We heard amazing stories of people that are coming to realize that the things that separated us as Christians are melting away. The Lord is bringing together Catholics and non-Catholics across the world to fellowship with one another.
There were many people that gave testimonies during the weekend about reconciliation, even within the Renewal. Some shared about splits within communities being reconciled, leaders from Word of God and the People of Praise meeting together and even a coming together of the two groups recognized by the Vatican for supporting Catholic charismatics.
The two groups who serve Catholic charismatics are the Catholic Fraternity and ICCRS. The Catholic Fraternity has focused on communities and fellowships while ICCRS, and the National Service Committees, have focused their service on the broader Catholic Charismatic Renewal (individuals and prayer groups). We have found that anytime you have two of something you have the opportunity for lack of communication, collaboration or cooperation. But this weekend there was a wonderful coming together of these two groups. Chairman Jane Guenther and Executive Director Walter Matthews joined with the Catholic Fraternity leaders, spending several hours specifically discussing how we, together, could support the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the United States.
It was a blessing to see that the Lord was bringing about unity across so many divisions. It was a wonderful time to be together with the other leaders in the Catholic Fraternity and witness the Lord’s work of unity!